In order for people to actually lose their doctor, the doctor would have to make fewer appointments during the day. So, the alarmist warning of poorer care and less access to your doctor is simply false.

Under a single payer plan, all that happens is a doctor’s staff would fill out a standard form adhering to set rules, instead of having to keep track of thousands of different insurance companies policies, each having their own unique set rules applying to their unique forms.

Bottom line is, Americans are paying $300 billion a year to insurance companies that do nothing to improve our health. America’s healthcare cost is 17 percent of our Gross National Product, and no other country’s healthcare cost is more than 11. The majority of that difference in expense is our archaic use of insurance companies as a delivery system.

Many on the Republican side are propagating the lie that government is the enemy. If so, we are on a path of self destruction because the government is us.

Ask the good citizens of devastated Joplin or flooded northwestern Missouri: Do they want the federal government to be inconsequential in rebuilding their lives? Or do they want any relief money they receive be off set by cutting needed aid to others, as Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) cruelly wants to do?

Construction in St. Charles County

Ask the over 10,000 construction workers hired in Missouri, as a result of the $500 million of Obama stimulus money: Are they against big government doing big things?

Ask the 600 thousand senior citizens of Missouri: Do they believe Congressman Todd Akin is right that Medicare is unconstitutional or agree with Texas Governor Rick Perry that Social Security is a ‘Ponzi scheme’?

Thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan famously said, “Government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem.”

Hypocritical words from a man who grew up in rural Illinois, where most of the farm community around him operated on government rural electrification programs. In addition, in Reagan’s youth, many of the nearby farmers lost their land to the cruel fluctuation of the commodities market. Today, small farmers are kept alive during hard times by the market calming effects of agricultural price supports put in place by the same government Reagan and Republicans rail against.

Even though Texas has over 3,200 miles of federally funded interstate highways, 16 major military bases, the Houston Manned Space Center, a 1000 mile border and coast line manned by federal forces, and need for federal assistance during drought and disasters, Governor Ricky Perry wants to make the federal government “as inconsequential in our lives as possible”.

If we eliminated the hundreds of thousands of “inconsequential” government jobs added to Texas’s economy, Perry’s bragging about Texas job growth would ring hollow.

What Americans want is not an inconsequential government. What Americans want is an efficient, caring government. Let’s not forget: Only government can truly do big things. We here in St. Charles realize this since the interstate highway system started right here.

Why are Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, of Arizona, ripping government interference while they drink water and light their homes from Hoover and Glenn Canyon dams? Much of the Southwest would be home only to Saguaro cactus and rattlesnakes if it weren’t for the federal government.

The same is true of all the Southern ‘states rights’ advocates who get their water, electric and flood control from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Sara Palin’s hateful speech against the federal government is completely two-faced because no state takes a bigger federal handout than Alaska. The federal government spends over $15,000 per person yearly to keep Alaska afloat. Remember the “bridge to nowhere”?

Or, what about government bashing politicians from the lightly populated arid Western states? If it wasn’t for the federal government, there would be no interstate highway system traveling thousands of miles though states where jackrabbits out number people 100 to 1. Nor would there be farming in their almost desert-like land, if it weren’t for federal water reclamation and irrigation projects.

In addition, no American is safe from tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, massive fires, and other calamities. Whether in Joplin, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, or Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, Americans look to the federal government for help in times of crisis.

The truth is: Government is us. It is our son or daughter defending us in a far-off land. It is our brother-in-law, the fireman, our brethren in church, the policeman, and our neighbor, the teacher. It is the mailman delivering a letter to us for only $.44 that the ‘man in brown’ wouldn’t touch for less than $7.00. It is the Boeing employee machining a part for an F-18 fighter, and the construction worker building our bridges, highways, and schools. All of them deserve more respect than the unwarranted criticism Republicans heap on them.

It is too easy for us to just blame someone else, like the Tea Party does. No personal responsibility on the behalf of Tea Party folks. Can it be Tea Partiers were deceived by George Bush and brought this recession on with their vote for the wrong man?

Americans need to take responsibility for the government they created. In a nation that was born of compromise, it is our fault if we elect those who are completely unwilling to yield, even on the smallest point.

It is time we all became informed, active, and accountable. What America needs is good competent government – not a stubborn, my way or the highway Tea Party’s simplistic “no government”.

We understand the need for doctors, drugs, and hospitals; but what do insurance companies do for healthcare? We are the only nation on earth that allows a profit on people getting sick.

You may say they put pressure on hospitals, doctors and drug companies to lower costs. If that’s true, they are doing a terrible job of it. Medicare and Medicaid pay 12 percent less for those services and they are, by law, able to negotiate with drug companies. Of their cost, Medicare and Medicaid pay out 97 percent to hospitals and doctors, while only 82 percent of insurance premiums go to actually healthcare.

America spends 17-18 percent of its GDP on healthcare, and we’re headed towards 20 percent. No other nation pays more than 11 percent. The difference in cost is our for-profit attitude on healthcare.

The day after Republican Scott Brown was elected, he wrongly said, “There has not been one job created by the $700 billion Obama stimulus.” That is blatantly false.

First of all, the Republicans seem not to even know what the stimulus package contained. One third was a payroll tax cut to 95 percent of Americans. One third was to pay unemployment to the millions laid off because of the Bush debacle.

364 Construction

The remaining one third went to stimulus projects to get the economy going. Missouri’s Department of Transportation received $500 million from Obama’s stimulus package. Here in St. Charles County, Phase 1 of the Page Avenue was set to end; thereby, lying off hundreds of construction workers. The county lobbied for and got $50 million of those funds to move on to Phase 2 construction between Jungermann and Mid Rivers Mall Drive.

The CEO of the construction company working on Phase 2, told his mangers he was a Republican, but right now, thank God for Obama.

Compare this to the Republican plan of devastatingly eliminating over 400,000 teachers, policemen and firemen, which in turn cut the feet off our local businessmen. The Republicans excuse for this is to maintain unwarranted tax cuts for the upper income bracket.

Now, Republicans are set to rip apart the contracts with Boeing, Emerson Electric, and other defense contractors. The rippling effect of these measures will further undermine any chance for recovery.

For 50 years, we have belonged to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is composed of 34 of the world’s industrial powers.

OECD reports, that among its members, the U.S. had the second lowest tax on business. Yes, the U.S. Tax code has a top rate of 35 percent on those with a profit of over $18.3 million, but no company pays that.

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.
3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year, received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.
7) Goldman Sachs, in 2008, only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.
8) IN 2010, Citigroup made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.
10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

Republican Paul Ryan acknowledges in his budget plan “Path to Prosperity”, tax revenue has historically been 19 percent of GDP. The Bush tax cuts have led to three years of revenue under 15 percent. This means about one third of the debt is due to lost revenue.

Compounding this revenue problem is the Republican vote for their budget which eliminates taxes on dividends and capital gains. This is an enormous half a trillion dollar giveaway to the top 1 percent. This means more of the budget burden will be put on the backs of the middle class and poor.

As for the spending problem, Republicans would like for Americans to believe it’s the Democrats’ problem. What about the 85 percent increase in the military budget during the Bush years? That doesn’t count the off budget cost of 2 wars. What about the unfunded $60 billion a year cost of the Bush Medicare Part D drug program? What about all the corporate welfare?

Democrats recognize spending needs to be reined in, but Republicans are completely dug in, refusing to negotiate even the most modest revenue measures or cuts to corporate giveaways. Until the Republicans are willing to compromise, like our Founding Fathers did, this nation is in peril from their unwillingness to negotiate.

Obama’s cuts will have no effect on the care of seniors. Here is the real truth about his cuts:

Drug companies have agreed to $80 billion a year to help seniors cover the doughnut hole in Medicare Part D

George Bush gave an extra 12 percent premium to insurance companies participating in Medicare Part C. This meant the government had to pay 12 percent more to insurance companies for the same operation in the same hospital with the same doctors than they paid for regular Medicare Part B. Obama canceled this outrage.

Obama said he would require hospitals to modernize, especially in regard to computerizing their records. His healthcare plan cuts $100 billion from hospitals as an incentive to computerize their records.

Because everyone will have to have their own insurance, it is estimated that there will be $100 billion less in Medicaid payments.

The remainder comes from elimination of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.

Obama’s plan brings down the cost of Medicare and Medicaid, while the plan of Republican Roy Blunt is a sellout to drug and insurance companies, and Paul Ryan’s budget destroys Medicare as we know it.

In the Carter Administration, the upper 1 percent had only 8 percent of all income; they now have 24 percent. Over 80 percent of the economic growth gained in the past 30 years has gone to the upper 1 percent. Also, the Wall Street Journal tells us, in the last 15 years the upper 2 percent have had their taxes cut by 25 percent. They now only pay 22 percent of their income to federal income taxes.

For the richest 400 Americans, the cuts are even deeper. According to IRS records, in 1993 the 400 wealthiest paid 29 percent in taxes; today they pay only 18 percent. This is a massive decrease of almost 40 percent for the wealthiest citizens. A middle class tax payer earning $75,000 pays 22 percent.

For 80 percent of us, there has been no growth in real income over the 30 years; and, tragically, there was a loss of over $2,500 in family income under George Bush.

The latest international test given was the PISA test given by OCED (Organization for Economic CO-operation and Development) to 15 year olds in 55 different countries. The USA finshed tied for 32nd. Here were some of the reasons for our poor performance:

OCED keeps track of 23 developed countries for children in poverty. The US, shamefully, was dead last. Children in poverty do not do well in studies

Asians had the highest scores, and go to school 220 days or more. Japanese children go to school 235 days while Missouri’s children go a national low at 174. This means the Japanese high school graduate has been is school an equivalent of 4 more years than Missouri’s graduates.

At the turn of the millennium, the US had 95 percent of its handicapped children in public school while very few other countries could make the same statement. Germany only had 5 percent.

All other countries have a curriculum of algebra and chemistry in the 7th grade and geometry and physics in the 8th grade. We do not. Only three states even require algebra for graduation and Missouri is not one of them. Professor William Schmidt, who ran the first international tests given in the 90’s, said, “Our children can’t learn what they’re not taught.”

It used to be the James S. McDonnell’s, Edward Monsanto Queeny’s, and Auggie Busch’s would take profits and create jobs by reinvesting in plants and personnel here in St. Louis. They did this while only taking a modest income for themselves. They earned only 20-30 times their employees.

Now, the rich aren’t just rich, they are enormously rich with salaries of 200-400 times their employees; and too much of their wealth goes to activities that are detrimental to job growth. Such as:
• Over the last 2 years, over $2 trillion hasbeen taken out of America’s economy to send two million of our jobs overseas
• Corporations are sitting on another $2 trillion; but instead of investing in new plants, they are buying other corporations and laying people off. A great example is Express Scripts taking $28 billion to buy Medco. Great for St. Louis; devastating for Franklin Lakes, New Jersey and the U.S.
• Estimates are that 25 percent of all monies in the financial markets are used to purchase credit default swaps and hedge funds. These are the same financial schemes which brought America down in the first place. This illicit behavior sucks up all the cash availability for small business to create jobs and for loans to consumers.

The economy of the 21st century is driven by small businesses and startup companies. What is needed is credit availability to them, and lower taxes for everyday consumers. Democrats will put more money in the hands of the job creators, not the job destroyers.